3D prestack depth migration with compensation for frequency dependent absorption and dispersion

Abstract

Spatial variations in the transmission properties of the overburden cause seismic amplitude attenuation, wavelet phase distortion and seismic resolution reduction on deeper horizons. This poses problems for the seismic interpretation, tying of migration images with well-log data and AVO analysis. We developed a prestack depth Q migration approach to compensate for the frequency dependent dissipation effects in the migration process. A 3D tomographic amplitude inversion approach may be used for the estimation of absorption model. Examples show that the method can mitigate these frequency dependent dissipation effects caused by transmission anomalies and should be considered as one of the processes for amplitude preserving processing that is important for AVO analysis when transmission anomalies are present.